Click here to play the podcastFor one hot moment, Broken Homes were the buzzed-about new band in LA, and big success was ahead. It never materialized. The band cut 3 albums for MCA, but they went nowhere. On this episode, we dig into a track from their first album, one of my favorite LP’s from the ’80’s and a real “desert island” record for me. The album never came out on CD, but if you can track down a copy on vinyl, I highly recommend it.
“An L.A. Rain” (Mike Doman) Copyright 1986
TRANSCRIPT:
The human ear is a pretty remarkable device. You can detect variations of less than 1,000,000,000th of atmospheric pressure. It can detect vibrations of your eardrum that move less than the width of one atom. Pretty incredible when you think about it. Welcome to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, where we put these amazing ears of ours to good use as we explore what goes into making a great song. You don’t need a lot of musical experience or knowledge here. You just need to use those extraordinary ears and see what we discover. I’m your host, Brad Page. We are part of the Pantheon family of podcasts, and today we’re listening to “An LA Rain” by Broken Homes.
Usually on this show, we have a lot of history to set up before we get into the song. You know, with artists that have been around for years, you have to put these songs in context. We did a Fleetwood Mac episode earlier this year that took 20 minutes of setup before we even got to the song. But on this episode, we’re talking about a band with not a lot of history to go on. In fact, there isn’t even a Wikipedia page for these guys.
Broken Homes were formed in the mid-eighties by singer Mike Doman and guitarist Craig Ross. The band got together in LA, but Mike Doman had come from the east coast–Pennsylvania, I believe– and he brought a rootsy, working class, kind of East Coast Rock and Roll sound with him. It’s very different from the hair metal bands that were big in LA in the middle of the eighties.
They recruited a drummer named Craig Aronson and started working out material. A bass player named James Ashurst was finishing up a gig one night with another band when they asked him to join the Broken Homes. They had a big gig lined up at the Roxy coming up pretty soon. They played that gig on a Friday night, and by Monday morning, they were signing a record contract with MCA Records.
Broken Homes didn’t fit in with the Sunset Strip sound at that time. Their sound was closer to bands like X or Lone Justice: straight-ahead traditional rock and roll, with a little bit of country and punk thrown in. But they became one of the hottest bands on the LA scene at the time. In 1986, they went into Ocean Way Studios, one of the greatest studios in LA and used to be known as United Western, and they recorded their first album with producer Jeff Eyrich.
The song we’re listening to here is called “An LA Rain”. It’s track number two on the album. It was written by Mike Doman. Mike is on lead vocals and probably a little guitar. Craig Ross does most of the guitar work. Jimmy Ashurst is on bass and Don Harvey is on drums. Producer Jeff Eyrich wasn’t convinced that their drummer, Craig Aronson, was up to the challenge of making this record. So, he brought in a drummer named Don Harvey, who had been playing with Charlie Sexton at the time. This had to be handled sensitively. They didn’t want to mess with the image of this being a tight knit, hard workin’ rock and roll band. I mean, all four band members names, including Craig Aronson, are, right there on the front cover of the album, even though Aronson didn’t actually play drums on the record. But if you look closely on the back cover in small print, it says “special thanks to Don Harvey, Drums”.
The song opens with what sounds to me like three guitar parts. One acoustic guitar in the center, possibly with a capo on it to raise the pitch. An electric guitar that’s panned left. Both of those are strumming chords. And another electric guitar on the right that’s playing a nice little part. Could be some chorus effect on that. Another thing to note is that most, if not all of the guitars are played in open G tuning. That’s a big part of what gives this track that blues based Americana by way of the rolling stones kind of rock and roll sound.
Now this intro will take us right into the first verse, and it’s an abrupt change. The bass, drums and vocals are all come in. The acoustic guitars are dropped, leaving one electric guitar now moved to the center. Let’s pick it back up from the top.
The bass and drums are providing a rock solid foundation here. Jimmy Ashurst’s bass is laying down a simple part that just fits perfectly. And Don Harvey’s drums are locked right into that groove. It’s a great drum sound. Probably starts with the natural room sound at Oceanway Studios, where this album was recorded, with some additional reverb added to make it sound even bigger.
Now, the story that Mike Doman is telling us here is that he’s driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in a convertible in the pouring rain, with the top down. Somehow he’s asleep at the wheel– his girl wakes him up just in tim,e as he sings “To ride a wall of water down the PCH”, and with that, we’ll ride right along with him into the chorus.
Once we hit that chorus, the sound opens up. That single electric guitar is now augmented by at least three additional guitars, left, right and center. One of the guitars is playing in a higher register, probably using that capo. It’s almost a mandolin like sound. None of the parts are particularly complex. Some of the guitars are just strumming and holding a single chord, but each one is playing in a different register, occupying its own frequency range. And each part is placed carefully in the mix, so that nothing is stepping on each other. Let’s listen to just those instrumental tracks.
When you take that and add some harmony vocals, it just makes this chorus bloom. Let’s go back and listen to this again. Listen to how when we hit this chorus, the sound just opens up. It’s like the audio equivalent of switching to widescreen. If you can listen on headphones, all the better. But you should be able to hear it bloom listening in your car or wherever it is that you’re hearing this now. This is the kind of production technique that I absolutely love.
This brings us to the second verse. And what I kind of like about this one is that, you know, usually with these songs, it’s a guy hitting on some girl, usually an underage girl. It’s always a little skeevy; but here, he’s flirting with a woman who’s a little older. Mike Doman was probably in his early twenties when he wrote this song. The woman he’s singing about has an ID that says she’s 24, but she’s really 31. But he’s into it.
Rewind and listen to the backing track here. I particularly like the Keith Richards influenced guitar that Craig Ross is laying down here.
It’s time for this second chorus. Let’s listen to just Mike Doman’s vocals first. I believe all of the parts are sung by Mike Doman.
Here’s that chorus again in the final mix. I love the drums on that part there, where they take a little pause with the tom fill and then hit hard on the second beat. Let’s play that chorus from the top again.
That transitions right into the bridge. The band pulls back a bit before it builds back up. Now, I think there might be a piano added to the mix here. Maybe an electric piano. It’s pretty low in the mix. Could be another guitar. Let’s listen to some of those instrumental tracks, see what you think.
Let’s hear all of the parts on the bridge. Now at the end, Mike is going to repeat the phrase “There was rainwater in my ears” multiple times. But each time, he sings it differently. And the more emphatically he sings it, the more it kind of makes you wonder how much he really means it. To paraphrase Shakespeare, “doth he protest too much?”
Listen to how they build the song back up. The bass and drums are doing the heavy lifting there. Let’s hear their part.
And that buildup takes us into another variation of the chorus.
Okay, first let’s go back and listen to Mike Doman’s vocals leading into the break here.
Now let’s listen to Craig Ross’s guitar part here. What he’s doing is taking his E string and detuning it. He’s not using a whammy bar, hs actually cranking his tuning peg down, turning it with his left hand while he plucks the string with his right. The string goes all the way slack. And then he cranks it back up to pitch and starts playing the riff again. Totally cool. Give it up for Craig Ross.
Let’s hear all of that together as it sounds in the final mix.
Now here comes a new part. Craig’s electric guitar is joined by an acoustic guitar. Strumming chords in the background with a very clean sounding electric guitar. Playing some simple lead lines. And listen to the drum fills here. Don Harvey is playing some simple fills, but they sound great. Just the right amount of reverb on them. This is a great drum sound.
Let’s bring up Mike’s vocals from the background there.
And there is a killer drum fill that leads us into this final chorus. So let’s check that out.
And now, as the song begins to fade out, you can hear that piano come forward a bit in the mix.
“An LA Rain” by Broken Homes.
The album was released in 1986 and big things were expected… but nothing happened. They just didn’t catch on. They toured hard as an opening act for some great bands, and certainly put in the work, but they just couldn’t seem to get any traction, and there was zero radio play.
But I love this record. Seriously. This is a Desert Island Album for me.
Broken Homes would record two more albums, a total of three albums that never went anywhere. And eventually they split up.
Who knows why some bands never take off. You could blame the record company, MCA. It’s a little tricky, I think, because MCA did stick with them for three albums, something that would never happen today—they’d be dropped after their first album. So I guess you got to give the label credit for that. But at the same time, I don’t think MCA knew how to market them. They just didn’t know what to do with this band.
Bass player Jimmy Ashurst said something very smart about this. Looking back on it years later, he said “Record companies still don’t know how to market for classic rock when it’s not yet ‘classic’, when it’s being made today; there’s no path for that.”
Jimmy Ashurst went on to play with Izzy Stradlin in the Juju Hounds and later was a member of Buckcherry. He also wrestled with heroin addiction and did some time in prison, but I believe he’s clean now.
Guitarist Craig Ross became the guitar player for Lenny Kravitz. He’s the guy with the big hair in all of those Lenny Kravitz videos, and he still works with Lenny today. Craig’s done quite well for himself.
Drummer Craig Aronson would leave the band after this first album. He was replaced by Michael Graves. Aronson would become an A&R man and was the guy who signed Jimmy Eats World and My Chemical Romance, just to name a few. Aronson died of cancer in 2014.
Michael Doman would kick around the music business for years, and would continue to be a great singer and songwriter. Unfortunately, Michael passed away in December of 2020.
I highly recommend the first two Broken Homes albums, especially this album, the debut album. It’s just called “Broken Homes”. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to find. It never came out on CD. You can find it on YouTube, but you’ve got to work a little bit to find the right Broken Homes. But it is worth it.
Thanks for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. New episodes are released on the first and the 15th of every month, so well be back soon with another new show. Until then, you can catch up on all of our previous shows right on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com. Or just search for us in your favorite podcast app: Spotify, Google, Apple, Stitcher, Amazon, you name it– you can find us on every podcast app.
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On behalf of everyone here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, I thank you for listening to our shows, and especially for listening to this episode on Broken Homes and “An LA Rain”.
RESOURCES:
Broken Homes
No direct link as there’s no Wikipedia page
Ocean Way Studios
https://www.oceanwaystudios.com/
Lenny Kravitz
http://www.lennykravitz.com/
Podchaser
https://www.podchaser.com/